Early Career

Born in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, Jurgen Gruson like many referees became interested in snooker initially as a player however due to his age and a lack of readily available coaching he subsequently took the decision to pursue a career as a referee.

Though he struggled to finance the appropriate refereeing course, Jurgen asked a Dutch radio show, the “Steen en Been Show” for their assistance and after a live telephone conversation with the host, Henk Westbroek was invited to participate on the course in Nieuwegein later that month.

Following the completion of the appropriate examinations Jurgen progression saw him officiate matches during the Dutch national circuit and Eurotour events before graduating to the Home Internationals in 2001 and the European Championship in 2002.

With Marcus Campbell having officiated his victory at the 2010 EPTC3 event

His next major landmark came a year later when he took charge of his first century break, a 123 by former professional Roy Stolk, before he officiated the a semi-final at the 2004 IBSF World Championship between eventual winner Mark Allen and David Lilley.

Jurgen’s first professional match came during the qualifiers for the 2006 Masters when he officiated a match between former world semi-finalist Joe Swail and Stuart Mann. Jurgen has since gone on to officiate at the final stages of the Grand Prix in Aberdeen as well as the qualifiers for both the UK and World Championship tournaments.

More recently Jurgen has benefited from the increased amount of tournaments in mainland Europe, taking charge of the EPTC3 2010 event final between Marcus Campbell and Liang Wenbo as well as being selected to officiate one of the two semi-finals at the inaugural German Masters the following season.

In 2012, Jurgen officiated at the 2012 Antwerp Open, including the quarter-final between Neil Robertson and Andrew Pagett. He also took charge of his second professional final between John Higgins and Judd Trump at the 2012 ET4 event in Bulgaria.